Episode 274 - The 10 Worst Emperors with Anthony Kaldellis

Kaldellis is an eloquent writer but his thesis that eastern Roman were an ethnic group is ridiculous. He's,.unprofessionally, peddling his politics under the veneer of science (see Alan Sokal'sscathing review of similar pseudo-science being peddled by a segment of the humanites).. Kaldellis problem is he's redefined the term "ethnic" to mean purely identity much like some have twisted the word gender to strip of its biological context. Kaldellis has no clue as to the actual ethnic heritage of the eastern Romans. He's not even academically equipped to have a professional opinion on it.

Due to the complexitities and evolving nature of the enpire it's different to pin it down a single group. They actively discouraged ethnic identities in lew of common christian identity, And while they claimed to be Romans, the Holy Roman empire claimed they were mostly ethnically Greeks for nearly 1000 years.. The HRE, also eyewitness to events unlike Kalldellis, saw Roman as a symbol of imperial authority not an ethnic group. Some eastren emperors claimed to be Armenian in origin. Some Latin Roman from antiquity Others Greek. Other Illyrian. To what degree their claims were true or self-glorification and the context of their claims is impossible to analyze just with words.. Given the multi-ethnic nature of the eastern Roman empire, whose border varied greatly over the course of its existence, it probably varied on case-by-case basis what some individual's actual heritage (somewhat similar to how British today can denote people of different ethnic heritages depite all claiming to be British).. The only ones qualifed to have an academic opinion on the matter are population geneticists that have done an analysis. Those in the humanities that have twisted the word "ethnic" to mean their politicized version of the term aren't credible academics.

Did Anastasius really *hold the balance*?
My impression is that he leaned quite far in the anti - Chalcedonian direction
But maybe my impression is too Papal.